Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Illustration & Animation

  • Academic
  • Creative Education, Research
Molly Okell

Molly Okell is a Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Illustration & Animation course at UCA Canterbury.

Molly Okell

Bio

On graduating from Camberwell College of Art (BA Hons Illustration) and the Royal College of Art (MA Animation) Molly won the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise and set up a company with two other animators.

They were immediately signed up to Nexus where they completed a number of commissions for bands including the U2 Pop Mart Tour and Radiohead alongside animation shorts for onedotzero and the ICA.

Molly then moved into live action directing initially working as a freelance director for EMAP and then full time at Channel 4 directing and producing over 500 band promos, sponsorship bumpers, idents and brand ads for a wide range of clients including Rimmel London, Ford, Virgin Media and Coca-Cola as well as major record labels Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music.

She was promoted to Head of Commercial Content for Channel 4’s 4Music while continuing with her own art practice which evolved to include sculpture and printmaking.

An award winning printmaker she regularly exhibits her prints alongside her sculptures and has taken on a number of public and private sculpture commissions. 

Further information:

Florr - mollyokell
Instagram: molly_okell

Research statement

Assemblage Part 1: The work explores the fabrics used in construction and the relationship between functional and non-functional forms. The sculptures aim to disrupt the conscious and unconscious familiarity of fabric and function by asking questions of the materials and placing them outside their assumed location. An acknowledgement of the parallels between architectural and sculptural methods is vital; however, this work demands a conscious division within the construction process that takes the work from the functional into the sculptural.

There has been a tradition of sculptors and artists exploring the fundamental aspects of architecture’s visual language from Anthony Caro to Pedro Cabrita. Often the work possesses recognisable characteristics of the objects they resemble. In Assemblage Part 1 the work moves in a different direction and attempts to reflect the pre-construction period rather than the constructed object or building. By examining the unintentional assemblage of materials laid out, stacked, isolated or abandoned on a construction site the work allows the viewer to experience the materials suspended between the roles of function and non-function.

By recording the daily activity of construction sites (Peckham London, Ramsgate Kent) and observing and absorbing the delivery, placement and movement of the materials around the site the work aims to respond to these individual materials and build them into a form that reflects the visual drama of a construction site while questioning their usage.

The aim of the exhibition was to draw attention to the making/construction part of both the architectural and sculptural processes and to capture the essence of the maker by questioning intent. The deliberate non permanence of the sculptures, their fragile fixings balanced layers and hovering elements give the work an implausible delicacy which defies the materials used. This in turn leads to the examination of the materials and potentially an alternative view of their intrinsic qualities.